'...The NCAA Enforcement Staff alleges that [Florida International University] lacked institutional control by placing inadequate systems and resources related to advising, monitoring the eligibility of student-athletes, and applying for NCAA financial aid and legislation. [Well. That covers just about everything.]

Vice President of Enforcement David Price sent a "notice of allegations" to University President Modest A. Maidique Oct. 1 detailing that the institution violated several bylaws allowing 40 ineligible student-athletes to compete during the 2002-2003 through 2006-2007 academic years. [Not ten, not twenty, not thirty, but forty.]

The University investigated and self-reported the transgressions to the NCAA.

"The problem is that FIU lacked the resources, manpower and adequate personnel," said Athletic Director Pete Garcia. [Then why do you have an athletic program? If you can't run one?]

The University has hired three more compliance officers along with the Student-Athlete Academic Center doubling the number of tutors from seven to 14 along with purchasing new computers this year. Also more opportunities exist for student-athletes to take summer courses. FIU has invested about $250,000 towards improving the SAAC and its resources.

"This is a huge setback for the whole University," Garcia said. "The only good thing is that we've put in the right systems to move forward." [Fantastic use of a passive formulation. Not "We've done something horrible. We did it before." (See below.) "We've done it again. We're ashamed."]

The NCAA reported that FIU violated bylaws concerning full-time enrollment, the five-year rule and progress-toward-degree requirements.

Thirty-seven student-athletes, who enrolled prior to Aug. 1, 2003, competed while ineligible by not completing enough credit hours to fulfill the progression-toward-degree requirements.

Fourteen of those 37 student-athletes from various sports did not complete an average of 12 semester hours in their Fall and Spring semesters or a total of 24 hours since the previous fall term.

During the 2004 football season, a student-athlete competed for a sixth year of eligibility exceeding the five-year rule.

In addition, FIU incorrectly applied NCAA financial aid legislations from the academic years of 2004-2005 through 2006-2007 resulting in men's soccer, women's soccer and women's golf exceeding NCAA financial aid limits. Thus, FIU violated NCAA bylaws that stipulated that each specific sport has a financial aid award limit.



An infraction report from Aug. 25, 2005 showed that FIU broke NCAA rules. Therefore, the recent allegations are the second record of FIU violating NCAA bylaws and [it] is now subject to penalties under repeat violators, which may include the prohibition of some or all outside competition in the sport involved for one or two sports seasons. [They just keep doing it.]

"We are resilient and confident that we can overcome this," Garcia said. "President Maidique has been in constant communication with NCAA President Miles Brand." [Again, note the surreal language. As if their own repeated indifference to the rules is a disability they're resiliently going to overcome.]

FIU is required to send a written response with the necessary records to confirm or disprove the validity of the allegations by Dec. 4.

The NCAA also requests all information on other possible violations discovered by the institution as result of its findings. Some of the records include enrollment dates of student-athletes at FIU and any other two or four-year institution and the reasons behind the NCAA violations.

FIU must provide a detailed description of any corrective or disciplinary actions against current and former athletics department staff members.

The NCAA Committee on Infractions may decide to terminate the employment of all staff members who knowingly engaged in or condoned a major violation.

"It was nobody's intent to violate the rules of compliance," Garcia said. [The Official Orwellian Statement.]

The NCAA Committee on Infractions is set to review the response through an in-person hearing Feb. 15, 2008 and Feb. 16, 2008.

The NCAA will notify Maidique of the official hearing date where he is required to attend.

Select University representatives including Garcia, Faculty Athletics Representative Stephen Fain and Sun Belt Conference Associate Commissioner Rick Mello who served as athletic director from June 2000 through October 2006 are also mandated to attend the hearing.

The bulk of the violations occurred while Mello served as athletic director. He declined to comment on the matter. [Totally understandable.]

Presently, the allegations are major violations but the University may send evidence within the written response to reduce the allegations to secondary violations.

Self-disclosure is considered when determining the penalties issued. Every sport except tennis and softball was involved in at least one allegation.'